National Pizza Day On Friday, Houston! Here's Your Pizza Guide

HOUSTON, TX — I grew up next door in Louisiana in a little town called West Monroe. Long before Duck Dynasty made that city a household name around the country, we had a pizza house that was hands-down the best pizza in the world. Forget New York or Chicago. Heck, forget about Italy for that matter.

We had a place called Johnny's Pizza House. It was known for its all-everything pizza called "Sweep the Kitchen." All pizzas were sliced into rectangles, not triangles. The pizza was piping hot, very thin and mostly greasy. But it was highly addicting.

Johnny's is where we had birthday parties before McDonald's had a playground. Johnny's was where we celebrated baseball wins as youths. It's where we went for lunch buffets. In the early 1980's, Johnny Huntsman expanded his building to put in lots of arcade games. So while waiting for that hot, greasy pepperoni pizza, we could play Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Galaga or the newest pinball machine. There was also a jukebox that played 45 records, and you could choose the A or B side — for those of you who remember.

When we were old enough to drive and start dating, it's where you took your sweetheart. That is, until the next one came along, and you still went to Johnny's. Johnny Huntsman started his first pizza house next to Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe (now called UL-Monroe). In West Monroe, he opened Johnny's Pizza No. 2.

Johnny's No.2 was the first to deliver pizza, long before Pizza Hut delivered and before Domino's came to town. Johnny's now has locations all over Louisiana. I left Louisiana in 1992 and joined the Navy in 1993. I haven't lived in the boot since 1992, but I always made it a point to visit Johnny's and get my fill of a 10-inch pepperoni pizza every time.

I've had pizza up and down the east coast, in Chicago, all over Texas and even Italy and Israel. But for whatever reason, nothing came close to Johnny's. Maybe it was the nostalgia of childhood memories, but maybe the pizza really is that good.

So you may be able to understand my excitement when a few years back I learned there were franchises in Texas. I ate at all of them. First was Atascocita, then Addison and then Katy. The Addison location in Dallas closed. Then Katy shut its doors. The longest-tenured in Atascocita more recently closed permanently.

Why do I write this? Well, I still love pizza and I'm not going to let Johnny's absence in Texas get in the way of writing a guide to everything pizza for Friday, which is National Pizza Day. But then again, isn't any day a good day for pizza?

Pizza Facts

1. The word “pizza” dates back over a thousand years—it was first mentioned in a Latin text written in southern Italy in 997 CE.
2. The first pizza place in America was Lombardi’s in New York City—originally a grocery store, Lombardi’s started selling pizza in 1905.
3. Though during the first couple decades only poor Italian immigrants mostly ate pizza, it was American GI's coming home from Italy after World War II that brought more widespread attention to pizza.
4. Pizzas were initially sold only by the pie. However in 1933, Patsy Lancieri (of Patsy's Pizzeria in New York City) started selling pizza by the slice — a trend was quickly carried out by other pizzerias.
5. Over 3 billion pizzas are sold in the USA each year. Add another 1 billion on frozen pizzas.
6. 17 percent of all U.S. restaurants are pizzerias.
7. Pepperoni is the most popular pizza at 36 percent of all orders.
8. Americans consume on average 23 pounds of pizza per person each year.
9. In the late ‘60s, the U.S. Army’s 113th Military Intelligence Unit spied on reporters and politicians using fake pizza deliveries.
10. Domino’s dropped its "30 minutes or less" guarantee in 1993 after a series of lawsuits accused the company of promoting unsafe driving.
11. Chuck E. Cheese's was founded by Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari, to make more money off of the games.
12. The largest pizza in the world was 131 feet in diameter, and weighed 51,257 pounds.
13. 2,500,000 pizzas are sold from Pizza Hut during the Super Bowl.
14. Consumption of pizza has increased American’s consumption of cheese by 41 percent since 1995.
15. Common pizza toppings in Japan include squid and mayo.
16. In Scotland, deep-fried pizza is a common choice.
17. In 2013, Domino’s in Brazil made DVDs that smelled like pizza.
18. Every year in the U.S. just from pizza, 251.7 million pounds of pepperoni is consumed.
19. 61 percent of Americans prefer thin crust pizza.
20. There are approximately 70,000 pizzerias across the United States.

Recommended Houston Pizzerias

• Antonio's Flying Pizza
• Bollo Woodfired Pizza
• Cane Rosso
• Coltivare Pizza & Garden
• Coppa Ristorante Italiano
• Dolce Vita Pizzeria Enoteca
• Luna Pizzeria
• Luigi's Pizzeria
• Piola
• Pi Pizza
• Pink's Pizza
• Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana
• Pizzeria Solario
• Romano's Pizza

(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for NYCWFF)